Desert and Mountain States PWA Coalitions Urge Treatment Focus, Lobbying of AIDS Organizations

At a meeting on May 14 and 15, People With AIDS Coalitions in six states issued a call for AIDS organizations to work toward a unified approach with more attention to treatment access issues.
The Desert and Mountain States Regional Conferences of People With AIDS Coalitions, representing PWA coalitions in Albuquerque, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Tucson, urged the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA), NAPWA board members, and the AIDS community, to:
* Focus and direct political action by AIDS organizations. "We feel that the time has come for a single focus, rather than a thousand voices crying in the wind."
* Work for the release and availability of lifesaving treatments.
* Lobby all AIDS organizations to involve themselves in making treatments more available.
* Urge persons with AIDS and their friends to pressure the FDA and other agencies or organizations to speed the study and release of treatments.
* Ask all PWA groups and leaders to work toward finding appropriate treatments and making them available.
The group will meet again in Boston in July, 1988.
For a copy of the statement, or for more information, call Chuck Mayer, PWA Coalition of Tucson, (602) 792-3775, or call Earl Thomas, PWA Coalition of Colorado, (303) 837-8214.

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